Sheet materials, such as, but not by way of limitation, wipers stacked in a generally aligned configuration, are used for certain “clean” applications such as surgical rooms, electronic manufacturing, automotive painting and finishing, aerospace applications, and the like. Critical applications, such as procedures in clean rooms where silicone wafers are prepared to produce materials and/or apparatus such as integrated circuit devices, computer hard drives and the like make the use of wound sheet materials or interfolded sheet materials undesirable to use. Wound and/or interfolded sheet materials can result in linting, that is, shedding of small particles which can ultimately contaminate delicate silicone products. Wipers or sheet material for these clean applications must be “lint free” and are generally produced as individual sheets with their edges sealed normally by thermal or laser means. These wipers are usually sold in a stack of wipers which are not interfolded, and which are either dry or premoistened, generally, but not by way of limitation, with an isopropyl alcohol (IPA). Moistening may cause one or more wipers in the stack to cling together, making the separation of one wiper from the stack by an individual wearing gloves very difficult. However, it is desirable to dispense one wipe or sheet at a time, particularly in a clean room setting.
To address this problem, wipers have been wadded or otherwise packaged as a plurality of individual wipers packaged in pouches or pails. Pouches generally have a tabbed opening which is sealed with a resealable adhesive flap. Such adhesives often lose their ability to seal once they are wetted with an IPA or other liquid, and the wipers dry out. Pails employ a lid that can be difficult to remove and/or which often is not adequately sealed after use, allowing the alcohol to evaporate and the wipers to again dry out. Further, use of a pouch or pail requires a user to hold the pouch or pail with one hand and withdraw the wiper with the other hand.
It would be desirable for ergonomic, production efficiency and cost-in-use to provide a dispenser which would dispense one premoistened or dry wiper at a time. Such a dispenser may desirably more easily dispense one wiper to a user.
Further, since the edges of the sheets or wipers are heat or laser sealed to reduce or eliminate lint, the edges may be somewhat irregular. When one wiper is moved or slid across the others in the stack, the irregularities on the edge may cause the wiper to snag or catch another wiper and drag it partially or completely out during dispensing of the stacked wipers, resulting in waste.
To reduce or eliminate such waste, it would be desirable to provide a restrictor, such as a weighted plate, which is provided on the top of such a stack. Such a restrictor is desirably configured to allow for easy dispensing of one wiper at a time, while providing weight to at least a portion of the stack to prevent excessive dispensing from a top sheet being withdrawn snagging or moving one or more sheets below it when the top sheet is being dispensed.
Such a dispensing system may use a restrictor with a dispenser. Alternatively, such a dispensing system may use a restrictor in conjunction with a cartridge holding the stack of sheet materials which is configured to be disposed in the dispenser.